Judge approves settlement in Sonics’ fans suit … almost

This one flew under the radar for more than a week, but let’s face it. The weather has been nice, the Olympics are on TV, the Mariners are reporting in Peoria and, well, nobody is paying much attention to court orders concerning the SuperSonics these days.

Clay Bennett, shown here testifying in front of PBC attorney Brad Keller at the city’s trial against the Sonics’ ownership, will pay $1.6 million to former season ticket holders in an agreement approved in U.S. District Court. (AP photo)

But it’s worth noting that U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones has issued a preliminary order approving the $1.6 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit between three former Sonics season ticket holders and Clay Bennett’s Professional Basketball Club ownership group.

Earlier this year the two sides had agreed to the settlement — pending the judge’s approval — which calls for Bennett and the former Sonics owners to divide the $1.6 million between the lawyers and former season ticket holders who charged that the PBC didn’t live up to its guarantee to offer the fans the same price and priority seats for three years when they renewed tickets prior to the 2006-07 season at KeyArena.

Bennett subsequently moved the club to Oklahoma City a year later and never offered the Seattle season ticket buyers the same-priced seats at the Ford Center.

The lawsuit asked that fans who’d agreed to the KeyArena renewal plan on the basis of that guarantee be awarded the amount of money they could have made by purchasing Ford Center seats of equivalent location and then reselling them at the higher-price structure being used in Oklahoma City.

While Jones has now given his preliminary blessing to the pretrial settlement, he asked that a few details be cleaned up before a final approval hearing on April 29, mostly involving how members of the suing class of ticket holders will be informed of the proceedings and approximately how much damages they would receive.

As outlined in my original story on this settlement agreement last month, about 1,000 former ticket holders figure to be eligible for settlement amounts that will likely vary from $100 to several thousand dollars depending on their seat locations and how much of the $1.6 million is left after the judge awards attorney’s fees in the case.